As it is known to those skilled in the art, in the knitting machines, especially of rectilinear type such as the so-called Cotton looms, in order to carry out the various operations following the formation of a knitted article, for example the hooking up of two different parts of the same article, provision is made for removing the last-formed stitches from the respective knitting needles by means of members called "punches" in the field. The punches perform the covering of the needles and thus the transfer of the stitches from the needles to the punches. The thus removed stitches are transferred, together with the punches, onto other needles of the same or different machine. The term "covering" refers to a condition generated by a temporary coupling between the head of the punch and the head of the needle. One is lined up with the other continuously, so as to allow the transfer of a stitch from the needle to the punch and/or vice versa, with no obstacles. The punches are in the same number as the knitting needles loaded with the stitches to be removed, so shaped as to able to be hooked head o up to the crook of the needles, and arranged in blocks, usually referred to as "combs", each of which comprises a preset number of punches. However, driving the known combs is a difficult, manually operated operation which calls for a good amount of experience at the hands of skilled labor and brings about a high production cost of the finished product. In addition to this, their application to circular machines is difficult to carry out because of the complexity of the mechanical members needed for the automatic execution of the operations.